I'm actually minoring in international politics right now, and the first thing they teach is that all political theories are only theories. They never perfectly correspond to anything. They aren't laws, nobody follows them. So, applying theory to real life situations is really just a tool to help understand things in a larger scale. Plenty of detail is lost, and a lot of that detail is rather important.

@qaanol, on Jan 17 2007, 11:33 AM, said in International Relations and Galactic Politics:

Have any of you ever played Chess 4? It's a great game. Take a 14x14 board, remove the 3x3 corners, so you've got a regular 8x8 chess board with three extra ranks behind each side. You start with your pieces in the regular order on the back two of those new ranks, and as the name implies there are four players. Play proceeds clockwise, and provides for just about the best example of shifting alliances among initially equal "great powers" in an isolated system any of us are likely to encounter firsthand.

I have played Chess 4. Good game.

@qaanol, on Jan 17 2007, 11:33 AM, said in International Relations and Galactic Politics:

Have any of you ever played Chess 4? It's a great game. Take a 14x14 board, remove the 3x3 corners, so you've got a regular 8x8 chess board with three extra ranks behind each side. You start with your pieces in the regular order on the back two of those new ranks, and as the name implies there are four players. Play proceeds clockwise, and provides for just about the best example of shifting alliances among initially equal "great powers" in an isolated system any of us are likely to encounter firsthand.

Chess 4 sounds like it might be fun to play, i'll have to try and organize a group to try it out with :).

This post has been edited by Quezacotyl : 27 January 2007 - 05:36 AM